As some of you may have heard by now, Dale North (our editor in chief from 2010-2014) will be moving on to sunnier, though less 'toidy skies. You can read that announcement here. It's no secret that Dale and I have definitel...

A 16-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome had a heart attack after getting overexcited by Sonic the Hedgehog. The Daily Mail's take on the story? He was, of course, killed by a video...

It's not every day that you can say a Fox News personality makes a rational argument regarding any of today's hottest trends and hobbies, but stranger things have happened.
In a recent segment of his talk show, John Stossel ...

I've talked at length about the Creepy Cull of female protagonists in the game industry, where women are shunted off promotional materials and deemed unworthy to act as playable characters. It seems the scythe is wielded not ...

Last year, I-Mockery and Abobo's Big Adventure's Roger Barr broke new ground in videogame journalism with his piercing critique of E3 2012. For anyone who has ever wanted to know the real E3 behind the glitz and glamor, his ...

British tabloid The Daily Mail has a review for The Last of Us, a game enjoying perhaps the most unanimous critical acclaim in videogame history. The Mail, ever a bastion of wisdom and judicious thinking, feels it doesn'...

In a recent article on Kotaku, writer Patricia Hernandez pointed out that, while Nintendo will censor asses, it has no problem showcasing a delicious penis.
She used Animal Crossing: New Leaf as evidence, criticizing Ni...

Recently, John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote a compelling article on SimCity, and how Electronic Arts' maintenance of radio silence has demonstrated total effectiveness in getting everybody to shut up. The basic argument is that any controversy can be sufficiently buried, provided those involved keep their lips glued and wait for the media to wander off bored.

"Silence is a powerful weapon in the industry," Walker wrote. "The mad truth is, when it comes to gaming controversies, if you ignore it it will go away. This article is a fairly futile attempt to not let it, and to make sure our readers know that EA and Maxis never spoke to us, never responded to any of our questions, and never sent so much as a statement."

This is, sadly, a very stark reality in the game industry. No matter how badly a publisher screws its customers, no matter how controversial a game release, all a company has to do is close ranks and hold a phalanx position until the attackers stop poking -- and they will.

Being indignant, no matter how righteously, is a game of diminishing returns, one that always ends in silence.

Longtime game and music journalist and -- oh yeah -- Destructoid editor-in-chief Dale North will be available for your viewing, listening, and creeping pleasure at PAX East this week with two awesome panels:
Do JRPGS Really S...

Games journalism criticism is a young field of business. As with any emerging practice it often likes to talk about itself, not because games writers are pretentious masturbatory bastards, but because we care to do the best job possible for those that patron our publications (that's you). We're also in the business of perfectly aligning our critiques with the commercial successes of games, otherwise we're big fat liars who stole your money. Wait, what?

In this latest episode of game dudes over-scrutinizing our craft, I present you three fascinating pieces of contemporary literature: A writer accusing the gaming press of a cover-up conspiracy (seriously?!) to preaching widespread embargo apocalypse, an editor-in-chief semi-apologizing for previews that may wasted his readers time, and a peculiar piece on Buzzfeed on whether or not sites like Destructoid are capable of ever truthfully assessing a product. The latter, of course, was received with a brutal tongue-lashing from his brighter contemporaries.

The entire argument at its core, if I may be blunt, asserts that gaming consumers are morons easily led astray by the gaming press because we are optimistic about our hobby. If you agree with this, I'd like to bite your face.

IGN laid off several members of its editorial team today. The move follows IGN's recent sale to Ziff Davis Media, which also plans to close subsidiaries 1UP, GameSpy, and UGO as a part of the restructuring.
"Our goal is...

While some argue the PlayStation 4 reveal event wasn't as full of megaton announcements as it should have been, many glossed over one important and startling bit of news -- Ninja Theory's Tameem Antoniades has hacked off...

The Sun loves to talk about how dangerous those violent videogames are, and frequently runs stories vilifying interactive entertainment for inspiring crime and teaching the youth of Britain all sorts of terrible things. Still...

We certainly get sent all manner of weird tat and nonsense in our role as semi-professional videogame jesters, and sometimes it's just ridiculous enough to achieve the desired effect and get a post. Here's 505 Games, literall...

Last week, we talked about how CNN anchor Erin Burnett desperately tried to link videogames to violent crime, attempting as she did to lead a psychologist into agreeing with her, and appearing flustered when he didn't. She wa...